Conventionally, an automatic opening or closing operation of a door of a vehicle is notified by a buzzer (a beeping sound). The buzzer cannot notify an occupant of an opening or closing direction of the door. The buzzer cannot notify the occupant of an opening or closing velocity of the door either. Further, the sound emitted by the buzzer can be an annoying noise when in a residential block, in a parking lot of an apartment building, or the like, at night.
In order to overcome the foregoing problem, JP2007-190990A discloses a sliding door apparatus, which can notify drivers of an oncoming car, a following car, or the like, of a moving direction of a door moving in a thickness direction of the sliding door by sequentially blinking a light-emitting body. The oncoming car, the following car, or the like, can see an opening or closing state of the door on the basis of a blinking state of the light-emitting body.
The known sliding door apparatus includes the light-emitting body provided at a link arm and notifies of a movement of the door in a thickness direction of the door to the oncoming car, the following car, or the like. However, for notifying an occupant of the opening or closing operation of the door in a sliding direction of the door, the light-emitting body should be provided on a front surface of the door at a position that can be seen by the occupant. Obtaining a new installation space of the light-emitting body on the front surface of the door is difficult in the context of design and cost because a design change of a door body is required.
A need thus exists for a molding for a vehicle which is not susceptible to the drawback mentioned above.